Catching up with Mat Kearney before two O.C. gigs

Songwriters usually choose an observational, stream-of-consciousness or personal approach with their lyrics. Mat Kearney definitely steers toward the latter on Young Love, his third studio effort and first through Universal Republic, which debuted atop the iTunes album chart and landed at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 last summer.

The Eugene, Ore., native, who plays two shows at as many venues in O.C. next week, compares his method to a fact-based filmmaker.

“On this record, I learned that I'm much better writing songs that are more like documentaries than fiction,” said Kearney, 33, in a phone interview from his home in Nashville. “There are really literal, personal stories” derived from family and friends' lives.

A prime example is the album's stark, acoustic-based closer, “Rochester,” performed in a manner reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen's “Nebraska.”

“Honestly, it's me doing the best Springsteen impression I have. I wrote it about my father," a rough man who ran an illegal gambling ring in New York, escaped an abusive life and struggled to raise three boys. “It's the most gut-wrenching, redemptive song on there.”

How did Kearney's parents react?

“I got nervous about putting it out because it's so vulnerable,” he admitted. “When I played it for my mom on acoustic guitar, she started crying and said ‘it's the most beautiful thing you've ever written.' Then I sent my dad a CD. He listened to it every night while driving home from work and called me in tears.”

Another striking tune, “Down,” concerns the recession and a family's home foreclosure: “It's probably the most faith-driven, hopeful and heavy song ... it ended up being a beautiful moment on the record.”

Carefree and infectious first single “Hey Mama” was inspired by the first time the pop/rock singer/guitarist met his wife, in an Anthropologie store. “I was trying to pretend I needed her opinion. She was like, ‘Those clothes are ugly and I know what you're trying to do, so back off.' It's just the sassy and flirty side of things.”

Penned in 15 minutes, the song's stomping rhythm became a launching pad for other beat-heavy songs on Young Love: “Usually I'm bored by most singer-songwriter records; they don't do much for me. And there are limitations when you're home by yourself ... I started clapping and programming big 808 kick drums. All of a sudden I had this really fun groove that you couldn't create with a band.”

Sublime vocals (akin to Chris Martin crossed with Adam Duritz) mixed with spoken-word cadences (as on current single “Ships in the Night”) have been a frequent Kearney hallmark since 2006's Nothing Left to Lose. Released on Aware/Columbia, that album sold more than 400,000 copies, spawned three Top 20 adult pop radio hits and multiple placements on television series. Three years later, the solid but more streamlined City of Black & White moved a relatively modest 100,000 units.

“I tend to want to do the opposite than what I did before,” Kearney says. “When I wrote Nothing Left to Lose, there was more of a hip-hop influence. With City of Black & White, I wanted to make a singer-songwriter record but was really having trouble writing that way.

“For this (latest) record I made a few loop-driven tracks, and I felt like some life was injected back into my music and songwriting. I just kept going down that rabbit hole. The more beats, the more fun and bombastic the songs were, the more they resonated with me.”

The percolating, pop-inflected “Count on Me” boasts a playful innocence, and Kearney got background help from much younger vocalists.

“We did these stomps and claps. I was singing and each line was the beginning of the alphabet." (He demonstrated.) "Then I started counting up from one. It became this fun sort of Beatles song that had a cheeky form to it. That just landed out of nowhere. Then we got our producer's kids downstairs, asked if they could sing ‘ABC' and coaxed them. They got really embarrassed and it took an hour.”

Power pop/rock whiz Matt Mahaffey – who has collaborated with, among others, Pink and Hellogoodbye – collaborated with Kearney on the whimsical female courting tune “She Got the Honey.”

“He moved to Nashville and I'm a fan from his Self days. I jumped at the chance to be around [someone] that has worked with Beck, Danger Mouse and all these really talented artists. We're actually talking about getting together and writing again.”

Unsurprisingly, Kearney's formative influences in high school were progressive, '80s-spawned hip-hop acts like De La Soul (name checked in “Honey”), A Tribe Called Quest and the Pharcyde. “I rejected the whole Bob Dylan/Beatles/hippie thing until later in my life because I was a graffiti skater kid. The backpacker hip-hop music really resonated with me.”

He didn't pick up a guitar until junior year at CSU Chico, where the English Lit major first gained confidence in his writing: "There'd be a thesis on some book I read and I'd turn it into this confessional story about someone close to me. The teachers would say, ‘This is the most ridiculous but awesome approach to writing a paper.'

"I would make everything personal to find pleasure in it. That's when I realized maybe this writing thing is for me ... I (created) these little songs and (discovered) this is a glove that fit.”

Eventually relocating to Tennessee, Kearney's indie CD Bullet emerged in 2004 and the track “Trainwreck” garnered a Dove Award. (The Christian music industry has been a prominent supporter since the start of Kearney's career in the mid-2000s.)

Kearney played L.A.'s Mayan Theatre last month and returns for a two-week Golden State trek that starts Tuesday at House of Blues Anaheim and continues Wednesday at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano.

“The goal with this tour was to selfishly put some shows together in California when the weather's nice and get off the beaten track a little bit. People won't have to travel downtown and fight the traffic.”

Among the cozier rooms and places Kearney has never been in is Capo: “It will be the full band with all cylinders firing. There should be a bunch of different emotions; all the rocking and intimate moments.”

Fans can also expect to hear the breezy new Afropop song “Young Dumb and in Love.” Kearney said it almost didn't make the album, but goes down great in concert.

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